I Dare You | To Be Bold

the pastors here if i haven't had a chance
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to meet you uh welcome we've been praying for you anticipating your arrival and we really believe that god
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wants to do an amazing work uh in your life here today as we wrap up this series called i dare you i remember in
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high school uh this is where i kind of got launched on what was going to be my broadcasting career
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with mark suselski he was our high school radio tv teacher also my high school baseball coach i spent a lot
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of time with we called him ski because none of us knew how to spell his name let alone pronounce it sometimes
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but he would do often times this uh he had the dream of being a game show host so he would always come in
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like that that was his introduction when he came in and but he would also do this thing called schenarios it was game like
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get it scenario ski it wasn't funny then either so he would he would do scenarios and
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they were um dares basically to see who would do what for how much money so i just want to run
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through a couple of those with you these are common scenarios that we talked about in high school let's imagine you walk
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into let's say this room uh and we taped off a 12 foot by 12 foot square
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you have to put a blindfold on select a spot in that square and just stand there and you're not allowed to move you have
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to pick a spot and stay there and then into the square we'll walk another individual with a blindfold on
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we'll call him prince fielder if you're familiar with the tigers he's the uh one of the most vicious swings in all of
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baseball prince fielder is said to have had he gets a blindfold and a baseball bat he gets to walk into the square and
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take one swing of the bat for 10 million dollars raise your hand if you would do it
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all right five million dollars a million bucks
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five hundred thousand dollars how about okay 50 000 bucks
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all right everybody take note of the crazy people in the room right here's another one we always did um he
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would say hey it just just rained and outside there's this puddle on the asphalt and we're gonna go out
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and uh you're gonna stay in about 30 40 yards away and you're gonna take your shirt off and this is mostly for the guys take your shirt off and you're
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gonna run full speed and pete rose dive through that puddle one million dollars who's in oh we got
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some takers cause scars some scars heal um five hundred thousand fifty thousand
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ten thousand a thousand bucks five hundred bucks
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will you do it for 20 dollars no okay so now we know the people bad bad
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judgment so so he would do these and they were always like these life-threatening or or
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threatening bodily damage uh scenarios and we would have conversations about these at length because we were smart
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enough to know the more we talked about it the less we did for classwork uh this is not the kind of dare that we're
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presenting though we're not presenting like death defying dares but we are presenting to you life-changing
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dares we're daring you actually to just follow scripture we're daring you to be obedient to what
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jesus calls us to do and today we want to wrap things up by very simply saying i dare you
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to be bold i dare you to be bold now there's there's different kinds of boldness
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there's negative boldness and there's positive boldness let me show you an example of each one of those
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many years ago when we only had one child at the time our daughter was maybe two maybe three years old
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and we would play board games and if you have kids around that age you know that the board games are excruciating because
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there's no skill whatsoever it's all just dumb luck and they're annoying so it's like shoots and ladders hi-ho
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cheerio all these kinds of games so we play these games and one of the things that i would do with my daughter in the
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caveat guys i'm not the greatest father in the world um i would joke with her and i say hey
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maggie guess what she'd say what i said i won
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you know why daddy won because daddy's a winner it was just a joke that was going on and
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we'd laugh and be like ha ha real funny and then uh we play the game one night probably shoot some ladders or something
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and i won a game maggie won a game and it was time for bed so it's it's we're making our way up the stairs to go
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to bed maggie's in front of me and then behind me is my wife and maggie stops on the stairs she turns she goes daddy
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guess what oh man she goes i won i said i know honey she goes you know
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why i said why she goes because me and daddy are winners mommy's a loser
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not how that was supposed to go but that's how it went uh sometimes we have bold thoughts
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that we should not utter we shouldn't like actually put voice to those things
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let's talk about positive type of boldness in 1955 an african-american woman sits on a bus
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during a time period that people of color were to give their seats up for for white individuals on the bus
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and she decided on that day in 1955 that she would not do it and she stood her ground and she kept
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her seat her name was not rosa parks her name was claudette colvin
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and claudette was a high school girl and this happened nine months before
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rosa parks happened that friends is boldness
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and that's the right kind of boldness because this is the kind of boldness that stands firmly upon something we actually believe and are passionate
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about because i think at the end of the day our boldness comes out of our passions
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and our beliefs it's our passions and our beliefs that that give birth to
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our boldness and as we explore scripture today we're going to look at the story of peter and
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kind of kind of follow the the arc of his story and begin to learn what this boldness
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looks like and how we develop it and what it's founded upon that we can learn from peter so if you have your bibles
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and want to follow along we're going to look at two different places we're going to begin in matthew chapter 26
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and then we're going to find ourselves in acts chapter 4. so if you want to follow along on your bible app or if you brought your actual bible with you i
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encourage you to do that but would you pray with me as we jump into scripture this morning
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lord god we are so very thankful for your boldness that while we were yet sinners
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you died for us and we know that because that's what scripture tells us so we give you thanks for that boldness
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because when you did that you knew that some of us would turn our backs on you
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you knew that we would not all accept your gift you knew that some of us would
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would run away from you yet in your boldness you still offered your life for us
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and lord we know that that is in a way a model for us to be bold for you so lord would you just speak to us during this
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time help us to receive what your holy spirit has for us
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so that we too can be bold it's in christ's name we pray amen
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so i think as we look at uh the disciples we can look at peter and say peter was
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the the model of boldness right i mean peter was the one he was he was the first one to speak up uh peter was the
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one that walked on water uh peter is the one that says some bold and
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and sometimes some outrageous things like he does here in this story here in verse 26 verse 31
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then jesus told them this very night you will all fall away on account of me
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for it is written i will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered but after i have risen i
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will go ahead of you into galilee this is a this is a challenge that that that jesus is putting in front of peter i
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don't know if you hear it as a challenge but for peter it is a challenge this is the the kind of thing that that peter
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would would wrestle with with this personality because he's such a bold person and he's the first one to speak up and this idea that we're going to
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fall away like that's just not going to happen and listen to peter's reply
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peter replied even if all fall away on account of you i never will
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truly i tell you jesus answered this very night before the rooster crows you will disown me three
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times but peter declared even if i have to die with you i will never disown you
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and all the other disciples ended up saying the same thing so peter begins with his review sort of like my
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daughter did when she was a couple years old and said hey all these losers might fall away but not me i'm a winner jesus
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i'm with you till the end and then jesus says no like before the rooster crows you're going you specifically you peter
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are going to deny me three times and i think at this point uh peter just pushes all of his chips to the center of the
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table like he just goes all in right like not only is he kind of defining what jesus
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just said and and arguing with that like he's he's being very bold about the fact that he thinks he's going to die
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alongside jesus's side now as we look at this boldness that peter has there's a part of us that
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we're like man i wish i was bold like that i wish i had i wish i had peter's
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resolve his determination is his dedication his commitment i wish
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i wish i was more like him but i think what we're going to find about peter's boldness is this actually
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is not the kind of boldness that we want to have this isn't the the boldness that we want
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to model in our lives let's jump to verse 69 and listen to how the story plays out says now peter was
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sitting out in the courtyard and the servant girl came to him you also were the jesus of galilee she said
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but he denied it before them all i don't know what you're talking about he said
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then he went out to the gateway where there were another servant girl saw him and said to the people there this fellow
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was with jesus of nazareth he denied it again with an oath i don't know the man
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after a while those standing there went up to peter and said surely you're one of them your accent gives you away
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then he began to call down curses and he swore to them i don't know the man immediately a rooster crowed
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then peter remembered the word jesus had spoken before the rooster crows you will disown me three times and he went
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outside and he wept bitterly well that's got to sting
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because here peter was was confident that he was bold he would stand with jesus until the end he would even die with jesus and now when jesus is
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is on trial and approaching the cross peter just disowns him and denies that he knew him
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at all and i think the reason for this is that peter's boldness was built upon the
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wrong foundation so let me like really high-tech um
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diagram for you to show you what this looks like so you have jesus reality
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and peter's expectations so so jesus is on a trajectory toward the cross like
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jesus knows this this is where he's headed he's always known this this is his destiny to die on
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a cross and raise again in three days peter doesn't fully understand this right peter has certain expectations
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about what the messiah should be now at the beginning when he first started following jesus like it seemed like
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they were together but when you're like one degree off in the beginning doesn't seem like much but
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as time goes on that one degree becomes quite a gap and i think what had happened is that
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peter became bold in his following of jesus but his boldness was was upon this foundation that that jesus was going to
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be some sort of military ruler political uprising or whatever it may be but it wasn't death on a cross that's not where
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peter thought it was going to go so peter's like i'll die with you i'll
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go to battle with you i'll fight for you all i'll die along your side and then this happens
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jesus is arrested and he's tried he's going to be executed he's going to be crucified and
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peter finds himself standing in front of a little girl and denying he ever knew jesus in the first
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place like before peter was a he was a big man with big words
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and now he's been reduced to what seems like a little man with little action
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and i think what's happening is his foundation is beginning to crumble
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here's here's the reality friends like your boldness
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comes out of your beliefs and your passions and because of that when those beliefs and those passions
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begin to get challenged or maybe even proven wrong your boldness begins to
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wane like when was the last time you were super like bold and passionate about something you knew you were wrong about
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and not just if you're like me and like to argue for the sake of arguing but like you're really bold but you knew you
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were wrong about it or you've been disproved or the foundation of that boldness just
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crumbled like we just don't get bold about those things so here peter is beginning to realize
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that the expectations he had for jesus aren't in the line with jesus's reality and because of that his foundation
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begins to crumble and the boldness begins to slip away to where every time he's challenged he
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begins to deny that he ever knew jesus so peter goes away and he begins to
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mourn he begins to weep and he's crying because he just denied christ he was proven that jesus was right and he was
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wrong and as he continues to mourn with the other disciples jesus progresses toward the cross and he dies and he's buried and
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three days later he raises again he starts to appear to the disciples
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in one of the appearances he has this conversation with peter and it's a really important conversation in peter's
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timeline uh because i want to think of it like you ever play dodgeball and let's say you gather dodgeball and
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you think you're going to do a great job you're really bullied like i'm going to dominate this game you know if you were that kid in school you just thought you
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were better than everybody and then you messed up and and you got you got pegged by a ball by some kid that doesn't play
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any sports right so you're on the sideline and you're all bummed and dejected about it
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right and then and then one of your friends catches a ball and when he catches the ball what's that mean he's you're back in the game so
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you're rejuvenating excited you're running back in that's what's happening to peter here he has this conversation with jesus and
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jesus says hey peter i got a question for you buddy um do you love me
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peter says well yeah jesus you know that i love you then feed my sheep
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hey peter um second time just real quick do do you love me
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well yeah jesus you you know all things you know that i love you
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and then maybe symbolically he asked him a third time because he denied him three times he says
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peter do you i mean do you love me
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peter says well yeah jesus you know that i love you
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and tend my lambs and there are there are so many
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messages that can be pulled out of that interaction that jesus has with peter but but i think what's happening is jesus is
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kind of reinstating peter into the group of the disciples he caught the ball and now he can come back into the game
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and he's excited and he's pumped and we begin to see throughout peter's storyline this
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it's almost a different kind of boldness a boldness that's that's different than
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the boldness he had before because i think the foundation for his boldness has changed
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and jesus is changing that foundation just like he wants to change it for us the new foundation
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is the resurrected christ it's the resurrected lord
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that peter just experienced the resurrected jesus the the jesus reality
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not his expectations but the reality of who jesus is i don't know if peter evercloaded fully
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grasped it before his sacrifice in his resurrection but now now he sees it man he sees the
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picture he knows who jesus is what jesus is about he knows why jesus did what he did and it stirs up this passion and
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this boldness because there is a difference between knowing jesus and knowing
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jesus like it's it's a different thing of just kind of knowing all the details about
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jesus you can know scripture through and through you can be able to quote scripture but until you until you experience him until you
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until you know him you'll never have that passion and that boldness that jesus is looking for
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it's this it's this change of foundation that that i think radically or changes the world
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in fact the movement that is 242 is due in large part to this the shift
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this fundamental change in in peter's foundation in acts chapter 2 we see this story
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about how the holy spirit descended upon the apostles and they were they were filled with the holy spirit they began to speak in languages they'd never
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spoken before and as a result of that peter gives this amazingly bold message this message
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where he he calls them sinners he calls them broken he calls them a a generation of
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corrupt people he calls them to repentance and to to turn back to god to
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change their lives and we begin to see this
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this new boldness in him but then i think we really see that boldness later on in chapter four in
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chapter four um there him and john are arrested and they're thrown into jail now the religious leaders are coming to
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question them because they're mad and they're they're frustrated and this is acts chapter 4 verse 8.
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then peter filled with the holy spirit said to them rulers and elders of the people
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if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man
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who was lame and are being asked how he was healed then know this you and all the people of israel
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it is by the name of jesus christ of nazareth whom you crucified
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but whom god raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed jesus
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is the stone you builders rejected which has become the cornerstone
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salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be
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saved friends this is a bold message remember it wasn't that long ago that he stood in front of a little girl and
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denied he ever knew jesus in the first place and now with the threat of imprisonment and maybe even death he stands in front of
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religious leaders and elders who are mad and frustrated with what they are doing and he stands firmly upon the foundation
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of jesus christ the risen lord like this is a different kind of boldness
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the definition of bold is to be confident and courageous and that is exactly what peter's doing and it's that kind of boldness that changes lives and
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it changes the world we can look back at that first message in acts chapter 2 that that peter
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preached and the bible tells us 3 000 people came to faith 3 000 people
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came to faith and then we look at this story here in acts chapter four and the bible tells us
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that because of of these circumstances and what peter's doing 5 000 people
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that's 8 000 people because of boldly proclaiming jesus
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and standing upon the firm foundation of the risen lord
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because that's that's impressive by any standard i'm a preacher and that is impressive by any standard
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there's this this amazing boldness i want you to look at verse 13. it says when they saw the courage of
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peter and john and realized that they were unschooled an ordinary man how many of you feel like unschooled ordinary men i do many
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times they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with jesus
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people notice your boldness it impacts people and it changes lives
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i remember years ago my my son was like second or third grade or something like that and um he had a friend that lived
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down the street and uh his friend was from a family that they were atheists yet his dad had a
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cross tattoo on his arm i never understood the connection but one day my son comes home
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and he shares with us that he prayed with cayden his friend at school i was like oh you you prayed for
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your friend at school no i prayed with him hold on you did what like at recess i
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prayed with him well what'd you what you pray for grandma or like what'd you pray for he says they prayed that he would
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receive jesus wait hold on walk me through this
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they're on the recess and my son with his friend
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they pray together so that his friend will receive jesus into his heart
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bold move buddy but awesome move
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and i think about that story and i wonder why why am i not that bold
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why are we not that bold for jesus
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what is it about us that when we get older we just stop
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being bold is it is it because we have more inhibitions as we grow up is it
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is it because we have more things competing for our time and our attention is it like i don't i don't what is it
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that keeps us from being so bold i think i know what it is
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i think that we we lack boldness because we lack passion
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i think we lack boldness because we lack passion i told you earlier that our boldness comes out of our passions
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and our beliefs when you don't have passions and beliefs then you don't have boldness either
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i think we lack boldness because we lack passion because we've allowed something precious
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to become familiar and let me be maybe a little more bold
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i think we lack passion because many of us have just become comfortable with jesus
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that we've just gotten comfortable with going to church and we read my bible and i pray before a meal and that's kind of
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it and we're just kind of good and we've just gotten comfortable with with that
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being what our faith is rather than actually being bold and excited about jesus remember
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remember when you were do baptized do you remember that day
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you remember remember how excited you were about it that you were excited to have jesus in your life and it was it was changing
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your life and it was powerful and it was amazing i remember every every single time someone gets baptized when they go backstage i run back there with them
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whether i'm just attending the service or i'm i'm preaching or whatever i go back because i i want to experience like
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their joy and their excitement because it's amazing and we have this there's a poster back there that you write your name on and
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you get baptized and people are always so excited about it you can just see the love of jesus in their hearts and it's
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like man we had that once but for some of us were like i don't i
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remember having it but i don't i don't remember the last time i had it
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i remember the last time i was i was that passionate about it remember the last time that jesus showed up in
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your life and just like something happened in your life that you know beyond a shadow of that that was jesus
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like the holy spirit showed up in my life and i i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that's what happened and it was amazing
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it was awesome you just couldn't not tell people about this you remember having that but you don't
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you remember the last time you you felt that passion because somewhere along the line we've
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just gotten comfortable and i would say i know this is true
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because if it wasn't true i wouldn't have to stand in front of you and dare you to be bold
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i wouldn't have stand here and dare myself to be bold because somewhere along the line we've
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just lost our passion but the great thing is it's not just about your passion it's it's not just about being bold it's actually it's actually about
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something else let's look at verse 13 again if we could um chapter 4 verse 13
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where they they begin to notice the impact that this is having look at what they say at the end they were astonished
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and they took note that these men had been with jesus
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that's what it all comes down to isn't it that our boldness
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is birthed out of our beliefs and our passions that comes out of actually knowing him
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like you can know about him all you want but what stirs our passions and what
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creates boldness is when we actually know him like we actually
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like peter encounter the risen lord
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like we encounter jesus and it's out of that encounter and out
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of this this connection and this relationship that we have with jesus that actually creates passion in our lives and it's
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out of passion that we become bold and we begin to see the world change
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because when we experience the risen lord we become passionate about him and when we become passionate about him we
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become bold about sharing him so i dare you to be bold
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in fact i dare you to be bold and invite someone to easter next week
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there's no time when people are more receptive to an invitation to church than easter so like this is the least
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bold you could be to just invite someone uh to easter
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we have easter invite cards that you can grab when you come in or you leave and and those are supplements for you
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those are supplements for you to to hand to someone and say hey i want to invite you to easter i'd love for you to come with me and and worship with me and
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experience god with me and here's a card that will remind you about that and show you all the times and
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in fact what i encourage you to do is is invite a friend and say hey i'm going to be at this service i would love for you
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to come worship with me and you just text me when you get here i'll meet you by the door and i'll i'll help you get
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your kids checked in and we'll sit with you in worship and make it as comfortable as possible for you
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that's i dare you i dare you to invite someone to church
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i dare you to share jesus with people now some of you may be sitting there and
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thinking well that really feels awkward tony and i think there's there's really two
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reasons why it may feel awkward for you
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the first reason may be because you know jesus you don't really know him
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you haven't really experienced the risen lord in your life
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and if that's you maybe your next step is to experience him
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maybe your next step is to simply pray and invite the holy spirit to do a good work in you
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to open the doors to allow jesus into your life and allow him to be your king and allow
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him to be your savior because then friends you'll experience that passion as it begins to grow inside of you
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maybe that's your next step today if that's your next step here in a few moments you're gonna have an opportunity
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to take that step we have some amazing leaders over here in the corner that would just love to have a conversation with you
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um just see if maybe baptism is your next step today
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the other reason it may feel awkward for you
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is because you've lost that passion
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is it you've known jesus for a long time but but somewhere along the line you've lost like
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like the excitement of knowing him and because you've lost the excitement
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of knowing him then you've lost the boldness of sharing that with other people because if you're not excited about it why would someone else be
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excited about it [Music] if you're not excited about the fact that jesus died for you and offers you
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everlasting life why would anyone else be excited that that's offered to them too
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it doesn't just come down to wanting to be bold it comes down to being passionate about this experience we have
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with the risen lord so maybe maybe it's just going to god and saying god i
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have known you for a long time help me to know you
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like help me to experience you in these next few moments we're going to
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enter into during these next couple of songs is an opportunity for you to do exactly this opportunity for you to
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experience him but maybe maybe your prayer needs to be like the prayer of the people that peter
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and john ran into when they when they were released they went to their small group
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small groups were important back then too so they go to a small group and they they share what has happened and they
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they begin to pray together here's what it says in verse 29 it says now lord consider their threats and enable your
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servants to speak your word hear this with great boldness stretch out your hands to heal and
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perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant jesus
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maybe your prayer today is simply pray that god will give you
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boldness that he'll give you the boldness this week to share him with someone and i assure
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you if you pray for it he will do it he will give you an opportunity to step
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out of your comfort zone and to be bold for him and to share him with someone
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this week he will provide the opportunity the question is are you ready to step
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into it are you prepared to be bold
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because i dare you in the name of jesus i dare you to be bold
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father god we
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we are so thankful for you [Music] lord sometimes it is easy in life to
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just kind of to realize we've we've gotten into a rhythm in our lives that doesn't involve
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being bold and we didn't necessarily choose that but we've just fallen into that and lord
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we we ask for your forgiveness for that because we know there's a follower of
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jesus that's not what you ask of us you ask us to be bold for you
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because just like we see in scripture just lives are transformed and the world has changed because of boldness god that
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help us to be bold like that too because we want to see the world change
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for you we want to see people experience the joy of
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of knowing intimately the risen lord [Music]
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because we know what it's done for us there is not one person who walks the face of this earth who does not deserve
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the same so very simply we pray the same prayer
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that peter and john and their friends and their small group prayed lord help us to be bold
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amen